Clive St Aubyn Dobson
Former Trade Unionist and Parliamentarian
Clive St Aubyn Dobson was a former Jamaican trade unionist and parliamentarian.
Early life and education
Clive St Aubyn Dobson was born on 14 February 1935 in Kingston, Jamaica. He attended the Allman Town Primary and the Kingston Senior School (now Kingston High). Clive Dobson continued his studies in social sciences where he attended the Henry George School for Social Science in Cornell, New York and the American Institute for Free Labour Development in Washington DC.
Career
Dobson was quite active in social services in the New York/New Jersey area before returning home. He worked with the Bedford-Stuyvesant Community Corporation (Brooklyn) and the Urban Resources, Inc in New York, and the Essex County Youth Rehabilitation Commission in New Jersey.
He joined the National Workers Union in 1958 before leaving for his studies. He returned home in 1975 to rejoin the NWU as assistant island supervisor (1975-77) and the PNP as a deputy general secretary (1977-81). He was named to the Senate by then Prime Minister Michael Manley (1980-83) and was General Secretary of the NWU, 1983-85, before being elected president in 1991.
He succeeded Derrick Rochester as president, but was hampered by a sustained kidney problem up to the time of his death.
Dobson refused to contest a challenge to his presidency from his vice-presidents Vincent Morrison and Danny Roberts in September 2006, and in the run-off for the position Morrison succeeded him.
He withdrew from the race after accusing Morrison and Roberts of betraying a commitment not to challenge him for the position.
He also ran as a candidate for the PNP in the turbulent 1980 General Election but lost to the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) Carl Rhoden in St James West Central.
At the time of his death, Dodson was President Emeritus of the National Workers Union
Personal life
A Methodist by denomination, Dobson married Elizabeth Ann Woetzel in 1978 and had one sone together.
Death
Clive Dodson died on 4 October 2015 at his home in Montego Bay, St James. He was 80 years old.
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